Don’t Apologize, Don’t Be Silent. [Reader Post]

Gun control advocates are using this horrific tragedy to justify the promotion of an agenda that they have been progressing for decades. As David Axelrod said a few years back, “Never let a tragedy go to waste.” All the while, supporters of the Second Amendment, like me, are expected to apologize, like it was our guns that were used in the crimes, or simply shut up and let the extremely vocal gun control lobbyists be the only voice in this “search for common ground.” I, for one, am not going to apologize, I’m not going to be quiet, and I’m not going to let someone else tell me what is acceptable common ground.

First, there are approximately 50 million households in our country that own firearms, and about 300,000,000 firearms privately owned in this country. 299,999,995 weren’t used this week in mass shootings, and the owners of those weapons have nothing to apologize for.

We are either a free people, or we are not. There is no “common ground” when infringing on human liberty. If you take away the rights of the entire citizenry because a small number of them might abuse those rights, then you really aren’t free.

The argument that “ordinary” people don’t need to own weapons that “should only be possessed by the military,” have forgotten the roots of our nation. This country was founded upon the belief that the government in NOT great, better, smarter, or more capable than the people that it serves. The Second Amendment isn’t about hunting, or even individual self defense. The purpose of the Second Amendment was to guarantee that a free people would always be able to remain free.

When asked who belonged to a “well regulated militia,” Thomas Jefferson answered, “All free men, excepting a few select politicians.” Whether it be in defense of our nation from outside invaders, or as a safeguard from a government that no longer valued the individual rights of its citizens, our founders knew that only an armed citizenry could truly protect itself from threats to their freedom. They knew that the only thing that could truly keep a government in check was that government’s fear of its rightful masters: us. And if we aren’t armed, with guns that “should only be possessed by the military,” then any vigil that we stand in protection of our freedom is only symbolic.

On a side note, the “assault weapons” that are being demonized in all of this, aren’t military weapons. They are cosmetic, not functional, copies of military weapons. The military, the police, hell, even the U.S. Department of Education, has fully automatic weapons. And you don’t.

Our Constitution was adopted specifically to protect the people of this nation from an overreaching government, especially in the wake of a tragedy like this one, after which those that believe in expanding government power will take advantage of the political climate and do everything they can to seize that power in the name of “protecting” our children. They claim they are looking for “common ground,” but what that really means is that they want us to give up ground. When it comes to giving up rights, the only compromise results in, well, giving up your rights.

My heart weeps for the 27 innocent people that lost their lives in Connecticut last week, but it also weeps for the 47,395* other people that lost their lives last week from other causes. Only about 212, less that 0.45%, were victims of intentional gun violence. More than twice that many died in accidental falls. More than three times that many died in traffic accidents. Over 23,000 healthy babies were torn from their mothers womb last week, 108 times the number of people who died from intentional gun violence. But it’s gun rights we need to talk about? Only 0.061% of the people who died in this country last week died from intentional assault with a so-called “assault weapon,” and last week was most definitely not typical. This is what we are willing to throw our constitutional rights down the toilet for?

The reality is that there are 300,000,000 people in this country, and that some of them are evil. Enslaving the rest is not the answer. Empowering the rest IS the answer.

32 Responses to “Don’t Apologize, Don’t Be Silent. [Reader Post]”

Liberal1 (Objectivity)

hiswiserangel

@Liberal1 (Objectivity): Had the principal or the first teacher that rushed him unarmed been armed and trained, then the outcome would have been much different. He never would have reached the children. You can’t legislate evil, you can only be prepared to stop it. Disarming millions of law-abiding American citizens just creates more potential victims.

Skookum

Wisdom, excellent presentation, however we responsible gun owners are ignoring a glaring malfunction. Lanza’s mother was an irresponsible gun owner and a failure as a mother. When you have a nut case for a child, you don’t take him to the range to familiarize him with weapons and neither do you leave unsecured weapons within his access. She was a teacher, and should have been aware of the dangers of bringing a nut case into the world, (She advised the baby sitter to never turn her back on him.) Yet, as a weapons person, she had a greater responsibility to have these weapons secured, perhaps secured away from her home.

If we take the effort to clean up the enablers within our own ranks and set rules and precedents for range protocol and the securing of weapons, we will have fewer incursions of those who wish us to be helpless targets.

The mother was just as guilty in these killings as the homicidal maniac she raised. Unfortunately she sought solace in the bottle and the therapists sitting at the bar rather than accepting reality and the responsibilities of weapon ownership. She qualifies as an irresponsible weapons owner. Unfortunately, there are probably many similar situations waiting to explode; unless we make the move to educate our weapons owners as to their responsibilities as weapons owners we will be facing the ignorance and fear of those who have a biased and irrational view of the situation. We can’t assume that every weapon owner is responsible, but we can make irresponsibility a serious situation.

johngalt

Excellent, Wisdom.

We are either a free people, or we are not. There is no “common ground” when infringing on human liberty. If you take away the rights of the entire citizenry because a small number of them might abuse those rights, then you really aren’t free.

That is absolutely true. And liberal/progressives want to suggest that only placing a small shackle upon the citizenry isn’t really infringing upon their freedom. There is no “middle ground” between liberty and servitude. There is only one, or the other. The only difference is in how much servitude the citizenry is placed under by their government.

Mully

bwax

To Liberal1:

I suggest we turn the country back to the way it was founded with God as our universal father.

We have become so liberal in all aspects of life that youngsters grow up not knowing what is good and what is evil. Too many programs and games worship violence, and too many lifestyles are not acceptable by biblical standards.

We reap what we sow. Take God out of our national life and we end up with no regard for life nor any regard for what is good and acceptable.

As a friend told me on election day, God gives us what is in our hearts. Our socities’ hearts are not in the right place.

hiswiserangel

@Skookum: I agree that she was an irresponsible gun owner but I really disagree with your assertion that she was a failure as a mother and your calling the shooter a “nutcase”. I agree that he has serious mental issues, and I can relate because I am the mom of two profoundly autistic children. Anytime I hear such hateful words being used, it’s my instinctive reflex to protect my kids.
I’m a gun owner and a mom of handicapped kids. I know full well that neither girl is mentally capable of handling a firearm safely and take extraordinary measures to prevent them from getting mine. You have good points, just please don’t stigmatize a mental condition with such hateful words.

@hiswiserangel: I have worked with autistic kids in a “stable” (as in horse) environment. I should have used a more appropriate word. I apologize; however, this young man seems to have been beyond the definition of autistic. The reason I designated her as a failure as a mother beyond the obvious fact of allowing the kid to become familiar with weapons, is because she allowed the kid to play violent video games and neglected to get the proper help when she knew the situation was advancing to the point of being out of control. A fact she let her drinking buddies in on.

I wish you the best with your daughters. I have seen horses make profound changes on some of these kids. There is a healing power among some of these huge beasts that we can’t fathom. I have been with horses all my life and I don’t pretend to understand this ability horses have naturally. If you know nothing about horses, don’t worry; there are probably therapy stables in your home area that will help you out on the cheap or for free. If you need help leave a note in this commentary and I will find people in your area or answer your questions. I started contributing my time and services to these groups when their infancy over thirty years ago. They have advanced far beyond those early days and I saw them accomplish miracles back then. Kids respond to horses and horses respond to kids.

Brian

My question is where are the 2nd Amendment supporters? I have not seen one on television in the past few days. The NRA has gone into hiding. Cheaper than Dirt has suspended online weapons as have various other retailers.

The groups who people have given money for decades are AWOL because they are afraid of how they are going to be portrayed anyway. The silence makes them look guilty and complicit. It’s emboldening their critics.

This current push does not stop with “military style looking” rifles. They want all weapons but will be glad to settle for all semi-automatics. Maybe Republicans will let Boehner run those negotiations with the effectiveness he’s displayed on the budget ones.

If anyone wants a “solution” to this, how about this one: Don’t rely on other people for your protection. When Flight 93 was hijacked the passengers realized they could only count on themselves.
I’ve never heard of one emergency drill that trains people to take the offensive. It’s always “hide and wait for help to come”.

Help’s not coming and if liberals have their way it will be against the law to help yourself. You may still be allowed to keep that bolt action .22 for hunting purposes like the Constitution intended after a lengthy licensing and registration process at $10 a bullet. That’s their idea of compromise.

Nan G

Before the liberals obsess about where the NRA is ought they not wonder where DAD is/was?
Our modern-day welfare state has spawned a fatherless society.
MOST of our poor children are raised in father-free ”families.”
And those children end up more at risk to become law-breakers than children raised by two parents.
The Conn. shooter was being raised by mom only.
Dad was also in Conn but not in his sons’ lives.
But dad had to know how much of a burden the younger boy was.
His wife told a divorce settlement meeting how she needed to move the meeting along quickly because that child was not good with others.
The father was in that meeting.
Fathers such as that man ought to have forced vasectomies at the very least.
Absentee fathers who know their children are dangerous yet refuse to protect the rest of us from them.
Liberals want abortions to be free on demand.
How about going further.
One damaged child costing society more than it can ever contribute is the limit?
Gun control is not the answer,
Knife control is not the answer.
Car control, poison control, drug control, machete control, ….none of that can replace what a father in the home can do to raise a child.

Nan G

Where is the outrage over the video game, Call of Duty?
1. CRAZED gunman Anders Breivik played Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare to improve his shooting skills in preparation of his killing rampage.
The 33-year-old was jailed for 21 years earlier this year for slaughtering 77 people in a gun and bomb outrage in Norway.

2. Mohammed Merah, 23 played the violent game before his shooting spree across Toulouse, France, in March that left seven dead.
He was killed by cops.

3. Adam Lanza fuelled his violent fantasies while hidden away in a windowless bunker plastered with posters of guns and tanks.
He spent hours playing bloodthirsty computer games such as Call Of Duty and obsessively studying weapons in the basement he lived in.

@Brian: My guess is they decided it was better to disappear for a few days than to look like they were insensitive to the tragedy by responding directly to the attacks (on gun rights) right away. Was it the right move? Hard to say. I know I waited a few days to become involved in the gun discussion.

@Nan G: I don’t buy that a video game is responsible, any more than the gun. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 million copies of Call of Duty games in the market, and there are most definitely not 150 million people out there shooting up the streets after they play. I think it is more likely that someone with the mental proclivity to do these horrible things is drawn to these types of games. It is arguable that in many cases, video games can act as a buffering activity that allows people to vent their urges without resorting to real life violence.

Every one of the shooters went to kindergarten also. We don’t blame that (though the public school system itself is a real problem). I know it has become cliche, but correlation is not causality.

@Moon: They are not mutually inclusive either. Autism takes many forms, and even now is mostly misunderstood. Just recently, they rewrote the book and eliminated the diagnosis of Asberger’s and rolled it into Spectrum Autism. I’ve heard news reports saying Asberger’s is what the shooter suffered from, but it doesn’t officially even exist anymore. The existence of autism in an individual most definitely is not a sole reason why a person should never be allowed to handle, be trained with, or even own a firearm. In reality, shooting sports is probably a positive influence in the lives of many peopel who suffer from autism, and can actually teach them respect for life rather than be a harmful contributor.

I don’t pretend to know the mother in this case. It is easy for us to judge her based on a few 15 second sound bites that come from interviews by what has truly become a ridiculous mockery of the press. I’m sure if one of my children committed a horrific crime, they could dredge up all kinds of examples of how I failed as a father, and how it was all my fault. There isn’t exactly a handbook that tells you when your kids are going to turn out to be a mass murderer. Or a drug user. Or a petty thief. Or any other type of criminal. As parents, all any of us can do is the best that we can.

Wisdom is correct, we don’t really know if Adam was Autistic or if he had some other mental problem. The news has been fabricated by people with the need to put forth a story. The accounts of an estranged brother, former classmates, bar patrons, and neighbors hardly qualify as a medical diagnosis or news worth facts. We have been fed a continuous stream of erroneous facts as the Left mounts its crusade against the Second Amendment and we have nothing but bogus news accounts to defend ourselves. Perhaps it is part of the overall strategy.

johngalt

I don’t think that the phrase has become cliche’ so much as it has been used selectively by people to suggest their ideas are correct, and ignored by those same people, in order to suggest that their ideas are correct.

Take this latest tragedy involving a shooting, for example. Liberal/progressives, and gun-control advocates of all stripes, are decrying the availability of “assault” type firearms as a main cause of the massacre. And in order to do so, they ignore that “correlation is not causality”, along with a boatload of facts that run contrary to their commentary, and suggest that we all give up buying, owning, and using, “assault” type firearms.

The facts running contrary are;
-One, “assault” type firearms are used in an extremely similar percentage, in murders committed with firearms, as their makeup of all privately owned firearms. Approximately 2%. This suggests that the weapon itself isn’t any more dangerous to the general public than any other type of firearm.
-Two, gun violence has been steadily decreasing for quite a while now, including during the period from 2004 to present, when the “assault” weapons ban expired. This suggests that the availability of “assault” type firearms do not provide any more incentive to do violence than any other weapon.
-Three, the difference in clip capacity between a common hunting rifle, and an “assault” type weapon, and the ability to reload each one, and shoot the same number of shots, is measured in seconds. This suggests that the same amount of carnage can be accomplished in just a handful of seconds more, when using a common hunting rifle, or shotgun, or handgun, than when an “assault” type weapon is used.
-Four, Connecticut has it’s own “assault” type weapons gun control law, and it did nothing to prevent the shooting from happening. This suggests that a federal “ban”, or other limiting gun control law aimed at “assault” type weapons, will do nothing to prevent future shootings from occurring, at the expense of limiting an individual’s right to own and bear firearms.

Yes, correlation is not causality, but the liberal/progressives are ignoring that at this point in time, concentrating instead on appealing to people’s emotions in order to push through ineffective, useless, and needlessly limiting, gun control legislation.

Brian

Thanks for your response, Wis. And I understand that line of thinking. However, if you don’t stand up they will run all over you and that is exactly what’s happening right now. The first body wasn’t even in the ground and Feinstein is introducing a new law following Obama’s Sad Robot pretends to care about dead kids speech.

Is it that hard to express sympathy and prayers for the victims of a senseless act of violence while underscoring that attempts to paint the tens of millions of lawful gunowners in this country as complicit is cynical political opportunism most foul? They’ve ceded the narrative to the gungrabbers when they were needed most.

Likewise, when they stick their ever-present hand out for another donation they are going to come up empty.

johngalt

“Out of respect for the families, and as a matter of common decency, we have given time for mourning, prayer and a full investigation of the facts before commenting,”

It’s even worse than you’ve said though, regarding the gun-control crowd. The last victim hadn’t even finished bleeding out when the tweets and commentary started rolling in about how it was all the fault of the gun.

And the NRA is going to get lambasted by the media talking heads and liberal/progressives, even though they gave more respect to the victims and victim’s families than the gun-control nuts. That is the America we live in today. Where if your viewpoint isn’t the “right” one, you get demonized by those holding that “right” viewpoint, even when you act more civil and respectful than the liberal/progressive animals do.

Nan G

Hard Right

It’s not a given she was an irresponsible gun owner.
At this point I have not heard whether or not he was known for violence before this. I have also not heard about how he got the firearms. For all we know the guns were locked up and he stole the key or combo to any safes/storage boxes she may have had.
Let’s give things a little more time as the media badly botched the reporting. First they blamed the brother, and they even said she was a teacher at the school. I will wait a bit longer before passing judgement on her.

Common Sense

Mully

Just a couple of observations.
When MADD was formed they went after PEOPLE who were drinking and driving. Not the instrument of destruction, the motor vehicle. When a tragedy such as this happens those who dislike individual firearm ownership immediately go after the firearm and not the PERSON. The political class with bow to the outrage and hook on the the bandwagon. Principles don’t seem to matter much, just go with the flow and try to get re-elected.

It seems to me the people who commit these acts head for a gun free zone. Where the innocent are like sheep. I can’t recall the headline, SHOOTOUT AT GUNSHOW.

JDR

Re: Call of Duty

WTF? So a few of the hijackers of the commercial airliners on 9/11/2001 were found to have been playing “Microsoft Flight Simulator”, which is a insanely accurate flight-sim, down to the switches that control the cockpit lights.

Good grief people. What if he had been an avid Paintballer?

“Well, we need to take a look-see at this whole Paintball thing…”

The same people who say videogames are responsible for things like this have no problem defending films like Human Centipede II, an avante garde cinematic masterpiece.

Or the upcoming, on Christmas Day, no less, Tarantino movie Django Unchained, which we are told won’t spur millions of Hip-Hop aficionados into a frenzy of whitey-killing, because it’s just “art”.

I’m gonna go back to Borderlands 2 now, quite possible the best violent game ever made.

JDR

I’m betting 8-1 odds on uberviolence after the release of Django.

Then again, I remember the violence that occurred nationwide by the same impressionable, fad-following folks — before the internet and 4g phones and social media — after movies like South Central, Colors, Boyz n tha Hood, Menace 2 Society, and Juice came out. Every movie theater in the nation that had more than 25% black attendance experienced violence, and, back then, in those good old days, the news media actually REPORTED IT!!!

If you want to go see Django Unchained this Christmas, be careful when selecting a theater.

That’s not racist, fools. That’s this little thing I like to call “not being stupid” — like when I cross the street when 4 ghetto low-pants are loudly headed my way. And I didn’t make me this way — that is, cautious and aware — y’all did, for being so racist your damn selves as to randomly beat people that don’t have your skin tone… people who would very likely love you so much as to take a bullet for you trying to save your hateful a$$.

rumcrook™

found this from a commenter at a different blog, it truly addresses the mindset of some ive seen here, who believe the evil gunmen should remain unmolested by armed staff at schools becuase of a fantasy belief that they will make a slaughter worse if they possess the tool of a gun to try and stop the slaughter.

We have been systematically trained in society to be passive and let the “authorities” handle it. We have been asked to be victims who await rescue by the agents of a benevolent state. Yet we ignore the fact that the agents of the state were already there. I maintain that if you don’t trust the teachers and the principal with guns, you shouldn’t trust them with your children. This principal proved she could be trusted with the children. It’s sad that our society makes her prove it by getting murdered instead of allowing her the tools she needs to win.

Nan G

Hollywood canceled, postponed or played down a slew of movies and TV shows with violent content.

Executives at Hollywood movie studios and TV networks have mostly laid low this week as Americans seek answers to the Newtown slaughter, and discuss how to prevent similar gun violence.

However, content seen as sensitive has been pulled from the airwaves, including an episode of the SyFy TV series “Haven” that contained violent scenes in a high school setting, and the premiere next week of a TLC show called “Best Funeral Ever.”

Discovery Channel canceled a third season of its reality series “American Guns” about a family of gun makers. Some radio stations stopped playing pop star Ke$ha’s bubbly new single “Die Young” to avoid any potential offense.

retire05

All the while the leftist press will ignore the comments by Jamie Foxx who said that in his latest movie he gets to “kill all the white people. How cool is that?”

So it is OK to make comments about being able to kill white people, but it is not cool to support gun ownership when we have people like Jamie Foxx making statements that some would say would influence young minds who idolize him?

ilovebeeswarzone

hiswiserangel
I understand your point, but we are al so sad and angry that one mother would have the mindset which is not my son could ever do such a horrible action, and you maintain that your daughters would never do such horrible actions also.
but I’m sure that you cannot read their mind and as they grow up, you won’t know who will insult them enough for anger to surface in their mind, and you took the measures needed to keep any gun talk around the conversation and hide the gun in a safe place you are sure totaly without any doubt that they cannot find it, I ‘m sure you don’t underestimated their way of observing your routine life even that they are autism, and that you know of the mind making up by losing one part by increasing another,
part of the mind extra ordinary superior than other humans, being within other GOD GIVEN skillS
ACQUIRED BY BIRTH ALSO. NO MATTER THE AUTISM OR MAYBE BECAUSE OF IT.
and tha mother did not think of the possible consequenses of the “IF,
and that’s why it happened, of course what hapenned is beyong the worse possibility for a mother to forsee,
that’s why we must refrain our anger although it is human to be angry, and we are all very angry too,
best to you.

ilovebeeswarzone

Rumcrook
yes you are right,
the training of a TOLERANT NATION OF GIANTS, TO NOT CONTEST THE LEADERSHIP POWER TO INCREASING THEIR EMPOWERING ALL INTO ENTITLEMENTS
KILLER OF THE WELL BEING
OF THE ONE WHO WANT TO WORK, THE ONE WHO WANT TO CREATE, THE ONE WHO WANT TO BE SUCCESSFUL AND WITH IT BE ENGINES TO HELP OTHER CITIZENS, JUST LIKE IT WAS DONE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THIS NATION, WHICH BY BEING FREE TO DO IT HAS ADVANCE AMERICA TO THE POINT OF BEING THE SUPER POWER AND MOST ADVANCE NATION AS FAR AS CREATING IS WELL NOTICE,
AND WHAT IS NOW BEING DONE IS DESTROYING AS MUCH , AS FAST AS WHAT HE HAS LEFT
ON TIME WHICH IS FOUR MORE YEARS TO HURT AND REVENGE AND HUMILIATE , AND TEAR THE AMENDMENTS OF THE CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHT AND COMMERCE CLAUSE,
AS MUCH AS OBAMA WANT TO ELEVATE THE BLACK PEOPLE ,
HE HAS TO KNOW THAT HE CANNOT MAKE THEM ALL AS A SUPERIOR
NATION WITH SUPREMACY OVER THE WHITES, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO ACHIEVE, AND WITH HIS ABORTION MINDSET IT KILLED BOTH COLOR , SO HE AS PRESIDENT NEED TO BE A NATION PRESIDENT NOT A MINORITY ONE,
USING HIS ARMY OF ROBOT INSENSITIVES LAWYERS GETTING PAID WITH THE PEOPLE’S MONEY TO CHANGE AMERICA FOREVER ON THE DOWNFALL BIGGEST CLIFF EVER SEEN BEFORE IN HISTORY.
WHILE THE GOOD PEOPLE ARE GETTING MORE ANGRY AS THEY ABUSE FURTHER.